DOUBLE HEADER
Our hunt started when Gary Keeton gave me a call and asked if I thought we could get a couple of good kills on video for Knight and Hale’s turkey hunting video. I responded by telling him that we could for sure get a couple of good birds on film, so the hunt was on. Gary Keeton, pro staff for Knight and Hale’s Ultimate Hunting, and Kyle Farnsworth who is a pitcher for the Kansas City Royals arrived in our SE Kansas camp late Monday Evening. Tuesday morning we were headed to a roost called the nerple where I had roosted the birds the night before. Just because we had a camera and the birds knew that we needed a good kill on film they obliged us by going the wrong direction - instead of trying to chase them we decided to head to a favorite strutting ground. Most of the hens would have already left their boys behind and as luck would have it we pulled up over a small rise in the truck and there was old mister BIG bird all fanned out and into himself. He saw the truck the same time we saw him and he eased back into the trees. We backed out and grabbed our gear and headed out to the middle of the field where there was a small clump of trees, got setup and let out a couple series of calls and he fired back at us. He gobbled numerous times at our calls but held his ground in the timber. After calling for around ten minutes to our surprise out popped not one but two big toms. They put on a great show for the camera - strutting and gobbling at any noise they heard. We were setup in the only cover we had, which was not much, and mumbled about how out in the open we were as the birds strutted towards us. These two birds didn’t seem to mind and they came right into the Pretty Penny decoy and had no idea that we were there. The tom that Kyle chose to shoot would not come out of full strut no matter what we threw at him. Finally they separated just enough for a shot and with the bird in full strut Kyle stamped game over with a blast from his 12 gauge. When we walked up to Kyle’s bird we found out just how big he was, 1 1/2 inch spurs and a 9 1/2 inch beard! We took some photos and Kyle had to make a mad dash for Kansas City to get ready to be in the rotation for the night’s game.
Gary and I looked for birds the rest of the day, we found several more but the heat and no gobbles got the best of us so we called it a day around 5:30 or so and got our plan for the next morning. We headed out earlier than normal because we wanted to get in tight to the roost, we got in and got setup well before the first crack of light. Once it started getting light enough to see we realized that we were within 50 yards of the birds and then three toms started hammering right on top of us. The first bird that flew down was a hen and she flew right over the decoys and left us wondering if we had set up too tight. Nope the three toms hit the ground 40 yards in front of us and made a dash for the Peeping Tom and the Pretty Penny decoys. Gary waited for the lead bird to put his head up and made a great shot, another great bird with over 1 inch spurs and a 9 1/2 inch beard.
Look for this world class footage on Knight and Hale’s Ultimate Hunting and the Knight and Hale DVD. Thanks Gary and Kyle for a great hunt, and the camera left us with proof.

Scott Engstrom

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